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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 7 of 12

Forms & Features

Text patterns, visuals and media

What your child practices

Knowing what each text form does, how features such as an index, footnote or caption help readers, how signal words show a text's pattern, and how images, color and design shape meaning.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Reading 8; Reading 11 · text patterns, visuals and media features

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Text forms have jobs: a script has dialogue and stage directions; an epistolary text is told in letters.
  2. Headings guide readers, footnotes add sources or notes, captions explain images.
  3. Signal words show patterns (because, in contrast, first). Images, color and design shape meaning too.

Example: A story is told in letters between two characters. What is this text form called? “Epistle” is an old word for letter. A text made of letters is epistolary. Answer: an epistolary text

Forms & Features in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 7 of 12 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Digital Smarts and before Summarizing Texts.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A bar graph in a news article is mainly used to…

    • list the sources alphabetically
    • show and compare data at a glance
    • give the author's biography
    • tell a story with characters

  2. Question 2

    Which pair of signal words shows a compare and contrast pattern?

    • because, as a result
    • similarly, however
    • for example, such as
    • first, next

  3. Question 3

    Which text feature shows the order of chapters and their page numbers?

    • The table of contents
    • The index
    • The glossary
    • The footnote

  4. Question 4

    A scene is told in letters between two characters. What is this text form called?

    • an editorial
    • a script
    • an epistolary text
    • an index

  5. Question 5

    Why might a designer choose a close-up photo of a worried face for an article?

    • To show the whole setting
    • To list the facts
    • To make the text easier to read
    • To draw attention to emotion

  6. Question 6

    What is the purpose of a heading in an article?

    • To end the text
    • To tell what a section is about and help readers navigate
    • To list the author's age
    • To act as a caption

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